


lost your mind in the sound

by whytho



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Other, Thank god for that, you have no idea how happy i am that all the people in this series have bloody last names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6310579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whytho/pseuds/whytho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pressing her lips together at his expression, Blue frowns up at him and asks, “Well, does Adam know? Does Noah?”</p>
<p>Gansey considers this for a moment. “If he didn’t tell you, then I’d say no for Adam. And Noah- well, doesn’t he know everything?”</p>
<p>Blue’s lips are still pressed together, but Gansey can tell she’s agreeing. She sighs, and for half a second Gansey thinks she looks just like Ronan with that expression. Then she perks up and, cheerily, announces, “I have decided we’re going for gelato now.”</p>
<p>(or: ronan becomes a bodyguard. adam is going into politics. gansey tries to find some semblance of normal in the whole affair.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	lost your mind in the sound

**Author's Note:**

> *winks at you* saave me

When Ronan tells Gansey, “I’m going to be a bodyguard,” he thinks Ronan’s joking. 

It’s late on a Tuesday night, late late late, and Gansey is studying for his English exam. Ronan’s next to him, paging through is Latin textbook and blaring something loud and irritating. The couch is soft and warm, and the only thing keeping Gansey awake is Ronan’s godawful music and Chainsaw’s occasional shuffle across his lap. 

“Pardon?” Gansey says, not as a question. He adjusts his glasses, peering over at Ronan. 

“I’m going to become a bodyguard,” Ronan repeats, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. Gansey blinks. 

“Why?”

Ronan sighs, sounding predictably annoyed, but humors Gansey. “I’m good at punching people .Latin is tedious. Art is boring.” He hesitates, as if thinking something else, but says nothing. Gansey is thinking it too, though: if he were to follow his family’s footsteps into politics, Ronan would be the only person he would want watching his back. 

“That’s ridiculous; you love art,” Gansey tells him instead. He decides not to talk about the punching. 

Ronan scowls, snapping his Latin book shut. Chainsaw pecks his hand irritably at the noise. “No, you love art. I like breaking windows and making up pretentious B.S. about how it’s ‘art.’”

Gansey tries not to feel betrayed by that; Ronan’s work with shattered stained glass windows had been truly brilliant. He, too, sighs, and looks up at the ceiling. Their skylights are fragile looking in the dark, the blackness beyond them marred only by the stars. 

“Well,” Gansey murmurs, decisive. “Would you like me to put in a word with my mother’s men?”

Ronan scoffs and shoves him and Gansey smiles and all is right. 

(Apart from the fact that Ronan is apparently going to become a bodyguard.)

~~~~~

Gansey does put a word in. Ronan doesn’t say anything about it, but he comes back one day with an internship and yoga lessons and a pleased expression on his face. 

Blue is there one afternoon as Ronan leaves, wearing yoga pants and his usual sulk. “Where’s the suburban mom going?” she asks Gansey, mouth almost curving into a laugh. 

Gansey grins as Ronan strides out. “He’s doing yoga,” he tells her, “to ‘help better prepare his mind and body.’” Blue curves against Gansey as they leave; he can feel all three of her sweaters drag against his polo. “Are you quoting him on that?” 

“No, a brochure,” Gansey responds, taking her hand in his. “Do you want me to send you a copy? The whole thing’s very… _flowery_ for a bodyguarding agency.”

Blue stops dead in her tracks halfway down the stairs, surprising Gansey. “A bodyguarding agency? What the hell is Lynch doing with brochures for bodyguard agencies?”

Gansey stares at her for a moment, because, well, _really_. Pressing her lips together at his expression, Blue frowns up at him and asks, “Well, does Adam know? Does Noah?”

Gansey considers this for a moment. “If he didn’t tell you, then I’d say no for Adam. And Noah- well, doesn’t he know everything?”

Blue’s lips are still pressed together, but Gansey can tell she’s agreeing. She sighs, and for half a second Gansey thinks she looks just like Ronan with that expression. Then she perks up and, cheerily, announces, “I have decided we’re going for gelato now.”

“But the zoo-” Gansey cries dramatically, letting himself be pulled along to the car. Outside, it’s cold, but Blue’s hand on his arm is warm and Gansey is satisfied. 

(He is not certain Ronan will be satisfied as a bodyguard. Really, he’s rather afraid Ronan’ll have to guard a politician and will make ridiculous faces during all of their speeches. In his defense, Ronan's done it before.)

~~~~~

Gansey’s doing homework again when Blue calls. 

“Hey, darlin’,” he says, in the worst impression of a Henrietta accent he’s ever done. He’s rather proud of it. 

“Gansey,” Blue replies, chiding, but he can hear the humor in her voice. 

“Jane,” he returns. He’s smiling now, even with his math book still open on his lap. Paging through it, he puts his phone on speaker and closes his eyes. 

Blue’s voice is warm and comforting in his ear. “I just wanted to make sure we were still on for Thursday,” she says, voice a low murmur. A layer behind it is the din of her restaurant, and Gansey is sure he can hear Adam’s soft drawl somewhere in the background. 

“Yeah. Yeah,” he replies, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm. As if it wasn’t obvious, he asks, “You at the restaurant?” 

Blue hums, then quickly adds, “Oh, I’ve got a family coming in. One sec.” It goes busy on her side for a seconds, loud and confusing, until he hears her say, “Adam, can you take Gansey? I’ll be back soon.”

Adam calls out, smudged and unclear, “Maybe you ought to have waited until you were off your shift?” and Blue returns with something indistinct. 

Their entire exchange makes Gansey’s heart hurt with warmth, and he realizes he misses some of their late, late nights in Henrietta. 

“Well,” Adam’s voice bubbles out of Gansey’s phone, just a little clearer. 

“Well,” Gansey mirrors. “Have you been picking up shifts?”

Adam doesn’t say anything, and Gansey can picture him scratching at his cheeks. “Yeah,” he admits, “But trust me, Blue’s stopping me from taking more than ten hours a week.”

“Good,” Gansey says definitely. 

“Oh, and did I tell you about my internship?” Adam asks. Gansey can see him leaning against the counter in a Blue-esque motion, fingers threaded through his hair, and feels his heart swell a little. Blue, he thinks, infected everyone with a little part of her soul. 

Gansey shakes himself back to attention. “You got the internship? Adam, that’s fantastic!”

“Yeah,” Adam says through a small smile. “Yeah, and- oh, there’s Blue.”

Blue’s voice threads through the connection, tinny and overwhelming in Gansey’s ears. “You’re telling him about your internship, right? I knew he would get it. And Adam! Has Ronan told you about his thing? Apparently-” her voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper- “he’s becoming a bodyguard.”

Letting the dregs of their conversation slip through his brain, Gansey listens to the sound of the city around him. It’s calming for him, hearing to the brash sound of cars in the street and the laughter spilling up from below him, and the heavy boots thumping up the stairwell and the music pouring out of bars. 

Gansey’s eyes widen. Blue is still chattering on about Ronan’s new job, Adam is laughing at the appropriate moments, and Ronan- Ronan is walking up the stairs in his thick, heavy shoes. “Blue,” Gansey says, quiet yet urgent. “Blue-”

He’s cut off by the apartment door being thrown open. Ronan stalks in, scowl in place, and at first glance Gansey can tell he heard what they were saying. Chainsaw, sitting on his shoulder, looks menacing. It may just be the phone, though; Chainsaw despises them as much as her owner. 

On the phone, Blue is still talking.“But Noah probably- Gansey?” she cuts off, worried. “You… there was a noise.”

“Yeah, pipsqueak,” Ronan says, dark and loud and straight into the phone’s speaker. “I came home.”

“Oh,” Blue says, strangely lost for words but still defiant. 

“I’m going to my room,” Ronan announces, not just to Gansey but to Blue and Adam, too. He storms out, glare as dark and ferocious as a summer storm. 

The silence after that is almost unbearable. Awkwardly, Adam leaves to wait a table, and Gansey is left with Blue. He takes his phone off speaker. 

“Well,” Gansey declares brightly. “That could have gone better.”

Blue’s snort is dignified and lady-like, but still manages to convey the message of that’s an understatement. Still, her voice is quiet when she speaks. “Should I have told him?” 

Gansey sighs and rubs his eyes. “I… well, no. For whatever reason. But Adam should still know eventually, and I’m not sure Ronan would’ve told him.” 

Blue is quiet for a few seconds. “You’re using your Aglionby voice.”

Gansey smiles like a politician, the only difference being his regret his real, and in the noise of the city at night it feels like a promise he’s not going to keep. “Sorry, dear. You know meddling makes me sound posh.”

“Yeah,” Blue replies, sounding distracted. “I need to get back to work, the boss is giving me a look. And- oh! After Adam’s first day on the job, we’re going out- this Friday. You coming?”

Gansey hums in agreement, flipping through his textbook. “Are we still on for next Thursday?”

Blue hums back, and Gansey can feel her smile through the phone. “G’night, Gansey.”

“Goodnight, Jane.”

~~~~~

According to Blue, Adam’s first day at the office is a success. 

Blue texts Gansey the address of their restaurant as she tells him this, and he thinks it might be bait to drag him into dinner. He would’ve come anyways, and Blue knows it, but it just might be incentive for Ronan. 

Now, Ronan is lying face-up in the center of the living room, staring at the ceiling. He’s playing the same song over and over again, something soft and deep and silky. Gansey thinks it might’ve been one of Noah’s recommendations, or maybe Matthew’s; he’s not quite sure. 

Gansey squats down next to Ronan, tapping the side of his foot. “Ronan?” Still staring at the ceiling, Ronan makes a noise of acknowledgement. Gansey soldiers on. “Are you coming to the dinner?” Ronan’s noise becomes one of complaint and he rolls over to his side in an attempt to ignore Gansey. In response, Gansey prods his foot even harder. “Come one, Ronan; you have to. Otherwise Blue won’t have anyone to be angry with! And Noah won’t be able to smirk across the table at someone.”

Ronan toys with his bracelets in a familiar gesture. “When I signed up for punching people in the face,” he mutters, eyebrows heavy, “I didn’t expect you’d all care so much.” 

Gansey muffles a laugh. “Trust me,” he assures Ronan, “We don’t.” He considers this for half a second, then amends, “Well, Blue might want you to get some extra help from Gray so you can fully defeat any potential enemies, but that’s more her wanting to help.”

Ronan scoffs. “I doubt Gray would help me with that.”

“You’d be surprised. Since we’ve been gone, he’s opened up a self-defense class.”

Ronan rolls back over to face Gansey, mouth twisted uncomfortably. It takes Gansey a second to recognize the emotion on his face. It’s shame, maybe, or at the very least worry. Ronan doesn’t often let either of those things weigh down his outsides, doesn’t let them show through anything. 

“Well,” Ronan says, dry and gritty and almost normal, if not for that goddamn expression he’s wearing. “I guess this means I’ll have to start taking lessons from an ex-hit man.”

Gansey holds in a sigh and responds, “Well, first you have to come to dinner. We’re having pizza!”

“It’d better be pepperoni,” Ronan calls as Gansey stands and walks away. 

“Adam’s picking,” Gansey singsongs back.

Adam, as it turns out, does pick pepperoni. They’re in a tiny pizzeria Blue found in the back of an alley, and there are only three topping choices: pepperoni, sausage, and guacamole. It’s cramped and small and Gansey keeps brushing elbows with Adam and Noah, but it’s also playing Blue’s favorite radio station and all the waitresses have Southern accents and the whole place smells like Nino’s on a Saturday and they all agreed, unanimously, to stay. 

Noah wrinkles his nose up and pulls a slice of pepperoni off, holding it up to his face with a frown. “Meat’s the worst,” he pouts. 

“Worse than sausage?” Blue asks, and Gansey can _feel_ Ronan smirking a little. 

Nosh, in response, leans forward and looks serious. “Surprisingly, Blue, I don’t have as big an interest in sausage as you do.” Adam chokes on his water. 

Gansey is eager to change the subject. “So, Adam! How was your first day in the business?”

Adam smiles, small and quiet and breathtaking, and starts talking. Gansey can tell he’s excited, more excited than he’s seen in awhile. “It was good, I think. The group I’m in is really small, so that we can learn better. And I think they’re going to be letting us do actual work and communications, instead of just copy papers and such.” 

Gansey grins at Adam, at the very sight of him. It feels like the sound of the city at night is being injected into his veins when Adam smiles like that, because Adam smiling is a rare, precious sight for Gansey. It’s the same for Ronan and Blue, too, Gansey thinks, because they are all looking at him like he’s made of starlight. 

Noah is unaffected. Chewing on his pizza, he nudges Adam and says, solemn but teasing, “Tell them what everyone said about your accent.” 

Adam frowns at Noah, almost joking but not quite. “They said,” he responds, “that Southern accents are charming. One girl called it cute.”

Blue mock-swooned against Gansey. “Oh, Adam,” she said, “Your accent… it’s just so _charming_.”

Ronan grinned, sharp and deadly, and continued the mocking. “Blue, what a lovely accent you have. I can’t believe I haven’t noticed how _cute_ it is!” Adam shoves them, blushing, and mutters something. Roan smiles, watching him, and shoves a pizza crust in his mouth. 

Blue opens her mouth, then closes it again. Gansey can tell she’s hesitating, uncertain about something, and decides to smoothly change the subject. “So, Blue,” he says loudly. “Do you think Ronan could get some lessons from Mr. Gray when we visit?”

Blue eyes Ronan, still reluctant about _something_ , and bits the inside of her lip. “Yeah,” she says definitely. “Maybe.”

“For the bodyguarding, right?” asks Adam, biting into Noah’s forgone pepperoni. Gansey think Ronan is going to blow, but instead, he just gives a sharp nod. 

“Wait,” Noah breaths. The entire table turns to him. “Ronan’s… becoming a bodyguard?” he asks, shocked. 

Everyone else is shocked, too, but for a different reason. “You… didn’t know?” Ronan asks slowly. 

“No one told me!” Noah looks mildly offended at this point. 

“We thought you knew,” Gansey tells him. 

“Why would I know if none of you told me?”

“Because you know everything?” Blue offers, wearing the same expression as Gansey probably is. 

Noah huffs, crossing his arms. “Just because I know what Adam’s intern friends say and who everyone’s in love with, Blue, doesn’t mean I know everything.”

(Gansey still thinks Noah knows all. Being dead has to come with some super powers, apart from walking through walls and not having to pay your fair share of dinner bills.)

~~~~~

Ronan’s first day at his internship could have been better. 

At least, that’s what Gansey thinks Ronan slams through the front door and fall face-down on the couch means. It’s eight o’clock on a Monday and Gansey is not prepared for this, especially considering Ronan didn’t even notice Gansey sitting on it, surrounded by papers and various lampshades. He ends up with his face on Gansey’s leg. 

“So,” Gansey asks, peering down at Ronan under the frame of his glasses. “How was your day at work, darling?”

Throwing an arm up over his head, Ronan replies, “I’ve definitely had better.” He’s dry and snarky and would be barely almost close to the same, if not for the fact that he’s refusing to lift his head from Gansey’s leg. Chainsaw flutters in from his room, as if sensing his turmoil, and lands on his back. Ronan grunts at the weight but says nothing. 

Gansey leaves it at that for the next ten minutes, until Ronan starts itching to talk. 

“Adam was there,” he says suddenly, still not facing Gansey. 

“At- at your internship?” Gansey startles at that. 

“Yeah.” Ronan’s voice is muffled, and Gansey can’t tell if he’s just quiet or hiding something. Gansey ghosts his fingers over the top of Ronan’s head and thinks, for half a second, that Ronan really looks the part for his future job. 

“Why?” Gansey asks softly, fingers still almost touching Ronan’s bristly hair.

“They said,” Ronan starts, “that we needed ‘real life experience’ and ‘would therefore be working with a small team of other amateur bodyguards’ so that we can ‘enhance our skills by working with people facing actual potential dangers.’” From his voice, Gansey can tell he’s quoting someone at times. Ronan’s quoting voice is lilting and more Irish than usual, and even when he’s mocking someone, like now, it sounds like he’s using those words as a prayer. 

Gansey rubs his thumb across his lip. “And that means you have a problem with Adam?”

Ronan may still be face-down, but that doesn’t mean Gansey can’t feel his glare. “...No,” he admits. Chainsaw ruffles her wings and squawks, making a disapproving face down at him. 

“Then it’ll be perfectly fine!” Gansey declares. 

(Blue calls him later with the exact same news. Apparently Adam handled it better, though, and just decided to play eight violent games of solitaire.) (Gansey’s still not sure why they have such a problem with this; they went to school together for over three years.)

~~~~~

The edge of his phone pressed around his ear, Gansey peers around the corner. “Blue,” he tries, but she shushes him. 

 

“Trust me, Gansey, they can’t exactly kick you out of your mother’s office.”

His heart pounding in his ear, he replies, “Well, unless she’s in a meeting. Or talking to anyone. Or planning on disowning me, or-”

“Gansey,” she interrupts, calm and firm and steady in his ear, “They’re not going to kick you out of you mother’s office.”

He sighs once, then braces himself. “I guess, I’ll be going, then, sugarberry.”

He ends the call before Blue gripes at him or he loses his nerves. 

His mother’s front room is full of people: secretaries, lawyers, and, most importantly, Adam. Gansey strides over, puffing himself with Aglionby confidence, and remarks, “Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?” 

Adam looks up from his fascinating conversation about travelers’ right and blinks. “Gansey? What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to visit my mother,” Gansey lies smoothly, glancing around the room. “Where’s Ronan? I thought you two were working together or something.”

For a fraction of a second, Adam’s face is darkened by something. It looks, Gansey thinks, remarkably like Ronan’s whenever he’s sulking. “He’s probably in the cafe. That’s where they go during their breaks.”

“They?” Gansey prods. 

Adam chews on the inside of his lip and says, “The… other company’s interns,” then turns back to his conversation.Self-consciously, in a last-ditch effort to get some attention, Gansey holds out his fist for Adam to bump, and is relieved to feel the motion returned. Then Gansey heads toward the cafeteria. 

There, the lighting is all fluorescent and the smell of perfume is overwhelming. It isn’t the sort of place Gansey would imagine a government building, nor could he picture Ronan spending his free time there. Regardless, he sees him skulking in the back with a few other people. Gansey strides over- really, Blue would disapprove of all his striding today- and taps Ronan on the shoulder. Hackles raised, Ronan spins around to face him. When he sees who it is, he relaxes. 

“Yeah, man?” Ronan asks, mouth twisted, though not unpleasantly. 

At the sight of his friends, Gansey panics. All of them are as menacing as Ronan, apart from one sweet-looking old lady, and all of them are staring at him. A few are unconsciously cracking their knuckles. “Uh, Ronan, do you, uh, know where Adam is?” God, Blue would laugh if she saw him now. 

The same shadow that passed Adam’s face crosses over Ronan’s now, and Gansey really can’t help but think that they’re becoming identical. “He’s probably in your mother’s office, with the other future politicians.”

“Ah,” Gansey responds, licking his lips. “That’s- that’s lovely.” 

Ronan looks up at him now, eyebrows narrowed together. There’s a little line between them that Gansey desperately wants to smooth out, a feeling that’s oddly familiar. He shrugs it off as Ronan asks, “You… okay?”

“Yeah,” Gansey . “I’m fine, I’ve just gotta, uh, go call Blue. Right this second.”

“Okay,” Ronan says, but he’s still looking up at Gansey with that face so like Adam’s. 

Gansey almost doesn’t make it outside the cafe, but his legs hold up until he can support himself with a wall. With shaky fingers, he dials Blue’s number. When she picks up, the first thing he says is, “Blue, I think we’re all becoming the same person.”

She doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. “What makes you say that, Gansey?”

“That, Blue. What you just said. It was like Adam and Ronan melded together to form a person and then you raised the terrifying little thing,” he tells her, feeling a little calmer. Blue is silent again, but this silence feels a little different. 

“...You do have a point,” she admits. “Does this have much to do with Adam or Ronan?”

He looks at the ground, ignoring a group of men in business suits walking down the hall. One of them has gum on his show, though, and he can’t help but notice the squishy little noise it makes every time the business man takes a step. “No,” he says finally. “Actually, why was I checking up on them?”

Blue’s chewing on her lip, Gansey can tell. It’s another habit she’s infect someone with; Adam’s been gnawing on his for weeks now. “Noah,” she eventually comes up with. 

“Hmm,” Gansey murmurs, leaning his head back against the wall. He can't quite remember why Noah would make him spy on Adam and Ronan; maybe it's a dead thing. He sighs, once, noiselessly.

“Hmm.” Blue returns it as a noise made in the back of her throat. She still makes it seem elegant. 

(Noah, Gansey decides, most certainly has super powers. It’s the only thing that would explain his strange need to send Gansey off on ridiculous missions when Gansey has geography homework.)

~~~~~

Blue is excellent at choosing restaurants, Gansey thinks. He’s floating on the life of the city at night and just ate the best dinner he’s had in at least three weeks and almost nothing could let him touch the ground, and it’s all because of the little bistro Blue picked for the first half of date night.

“Are you in the mood for coffee, Jane?” he asks her, opening his front door

“Hmm, hot chocolate. And I get to pick the movie!” she calls, dancing through the doorway. Then she stops dead in her tracks.

Gansey peers over her shoulder. “Ah, Ronan. And-” He, too, stops dead. Roan, and Adam. Adam Parrish, sitting in their living room, pretty head bent close to Ronan’s.

Adam looks up as they enter the room and rubs his eyes. “Oh, Gansey. And Blue. I thought it was date night.”

“It is,” Blue assures him, voice soft with something Gansey can’t quite decipher right now. 

Adam stands and pops the joints in his spine, smiling soft down at Ronan. “I’d better be getting home now. Ronan… thank you for the Latin.” With that, he picks up his jacket from Blue’s armchair and takes him leave. 

With Adam gone, Blue morphs her expression into something both shocked and devious. She grins. “So, Ronan. What was Adam doing here so late?”

“What are you doing here so late?” Ronan shoots back, blustery. He tightens his jaw and admits, “...He… needed some help with Latin.”

Blue lifts one narrow eyebrow. “Really? Because it seems like you were close to doing something other than Latin.”

Ronan, Gansey thinks, is close to shock. Maybe not _quite_ shock, no, but something similar: his eyes have gone remarkably wide and his usual scowl is quickly being displaced. “It was comparing Roman laws to the ones in today’s society,” he says, almost desperately, frown close to gone. 

Blue raises her chin a little, judging. Finally, she goes, “Ah,” as if everything is explained, and Ronan’s nostrils flare. “Well,” Blue continues, dropping her bag on the couch next to Ronan. “We’re watching a movie now, so I would suggest retreating to your room. Unless you like The Truman Show, that is.”

Ronan’s still defensive, but he softens his shoulders a little and says, stubborn, “No, I think I’ll stay here.”

Blue smiles, small and genuine. Waving a hand up at Gansey, she requests, “Make us some hot chocolate, will you?”

“Of course, my muffinlove,” Gansey replies, ever the gallant, and out of the corner of his eyes he sees Ronan make a face. 

The kitchen is warm and cozy, just the same as it was when they first moved in. It’s a bit messier now, though, and Gansey vaguely entertains the thought of doing dishes. Instead, he makes the hot chocolate. In the almost silence of the kitchen, the living room’s action slips through the door. He can hear Ronan and Blue talking, the noise turning into a mess of murmurs and Blue’s smudgy laughter and Ronan’s half-hearted protests, and smiles wanly. 

A breeze blows through the kitchen, and Gansey is unsurprised to see Noah when he turns. “They’re adorable,” Noah says, leaning on the counter and making a dopey expression. 

“Who, Blue and Ronan?” Gansey asks, dumping mix into three cups. 

Noah sighs theatrically, reaching across him to grab another mug. “I’m here too,” he tells Gansey crossly, rolling his eyes. “And, no, not Blue and Ronan. Well, I mean, technically Ronan. But not right now, of course.”

 

Gansey opens his mouth, then closes it again.Unsure of what to do, he hands Noah a packet of hot chocolate mix and starts pouring out the water. “Then… who?”

Noah looks at his face, straight into his eyes. Jaw dropping, he smiles a little, deviously, and Gansey can picture Blue making that exact same expression. “You don’t know, do you?”

Gansey shakes his head. Picking up two mugs, he tells Noah, “No. And right now I don’t want to be meddling, so you are not going to tell me.”

In the living room, Blue is curled up on the couch, saying something to Ronan. “Well, at least we don’t whisper sweet Latin nothings to each other in a dark apartment,” she tells him, lips curving as if she wants to smile but can’t quite. Gansey coughs, puzzling over her comment. 

Noticing Gansey, standing in the doorway with Noah behind him, Blue quiets. Ronan’s nostrils are still flared in embarrassment, but he doesn’t say anything. They watch the movie in silence, and Gansey feels like he’s missing out on some huge inside joke. 

(They don’t watch The Truman Show, in the end. Noah coerces Blue into picking Monty Python, and Ronan laughs at least three times. The night is, overall, good, even if the hot chocolate isn’t.)

~~~~~

The end of Adam’s internship, Gansey decides, is the end of an era. The era of many cryptic, smirked messages passed between Noah and blue, eluding to something Gansey can’t quite grasp. (He’s not used to that really; he usually knows his family like the back of his hand.) This era is one of Ronan’s mood swings, far more than Gansey was usually faced with, and this era is one of Adam’s old polite, restrained behavior. 

This era, Gansey decides, isn’t one he likes, and he will not be disappointed to see it go. 

It’s the last day of this era, the last day of Adam’s internship, and all of them are at Gansey’s mother’s house for a dinner. When Gansey had asked, her mother had claimed that it was to ‘place the interns in real life political settings in order further their diplomacy one more time,’ but Gansey thinks it’s all just an excuse to hire those fantastic caterers again. 

Blue, apparently, agrees with him. “Why,” she mutters, leaning into him ever so slightly, “are we here?”

Gansey looks down at her, at her dark, dark hair, squeezed into a sleek bun, and at her eyebrows, narrowed in annoyance. He tries not to smile at the sight of her, because really, she looks like a mixture of Gansey’s life before Glendower and his life now, and murmurs, ”To congratulate Adam. And to make sure Ronan doesn’t stab anyone, because I’m not sure he can handle being in a suit for this long.”

Gansey can feel Blue’s laugh more than he can hear it. “Yeah,” she agrees, looking up at him. “And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“Okay, you two.” Noah appears behind them, smiling softly. Blue doesn’t even jump; Gansey’s jealous of that. He nods at Adam. “We should probably congratulate him.”

The three of them make their way over to Adam, slipping through the crowd. Gansey doesn’t fail to notice Ronan, lurking in the shadows with some other bodyguards. Adam, n the other hand, is standing in the light, and looks like he’s glittering. 

“God,” Blue says under her breath, and Gansey looks at her. She looks back. “He looks just like you.” 

Gansey studies Adam. He is smiling charmingly like it’s the easiest thing in the world, and it makes Gansey’s heart hurt, because it looks just like Gansey’s golden facade at all the parties he’s been to over the years. He shivers, and Noah steps up to wrap an arm around his neck. 

“It’s okay, Gans,” he murmurs, then walks up to Adam, dragging the other two behind him. “Adam! Congrats on the internship!”

Adam smiles, and Gansey realizes he looks genuinely happy, hair shining bronze in the buttery light. “Did you not realize I got it?”

Noah laughs, an Aglionby laugh. In the shadows, not twenty feet away, Ronan tenses at the sound of it, and Gansey looks at him for that split second. 

It’s hard for him to comprehend, but Ronan cleans up nice. His cuffs are neatly buttoned, his tattoos are hidden from view, and his bird is nowhere to be seen. It shocks Gansey. Ronan isn’t cut out for suits, no matter the imposing figure he cuts in them, and he sure as hell doesn’t look comfortable in them. In the moment Gansey looks at him, he’s tight and drawn like he’s ready to strike, and in the moments after he does. 

Gansey sees it all in clarity. Blue, still looking up at him, notices the chandelier falling almost before it starts. Faster than a bullet, she pulls both Gansey and Noah off the side, just by a few feet, but it’s enough. (Gansey sees her face as she tugs them out of the way; it’s desperate and wild and a piece of her hair fell out of her bun and whipped through the air.) Adam isn’t quite so lucky. He has enough time to look up, but by then it was too late. 

At least, it would have been too late, if not for Ronan’s freakish reflexes. He moves like the snake he is, fast and sharp, with no room for error. As Gansey watches, Ronan tackles Adam out of the way of the falling chandelier and they topple to the ground, unhurt. 

Time restarts. Gansey can hear Ronan draw in a breath, and the air feels electric. Ronan’s last breath seems like the only one anyone else has take, in this strange, stony silence, and Gansey can tell Blue and Noah are staring at the two of them, too. 

“Well,” Adam whispers, voice rasping. “That was a surprise.”

Ronan’s scowling- Gansey can tell, even with only his back visible. “Understatement, Parrish.” He stands, dusting off his suit trousers, and offers Adam a hand. As he takes it, Adam smiles, and it is breathtaking and gorgeous and Gansey would like to see Adam this happy forever. 

(Later in the night, when Gansey drives them all home, he can see Ronan gripping Ronan’s wrist. He says nothing. Some things, he decides, should not be gossip the whole family learns.) 

(Noah tells Blue immediately when he finds out, though. Gansey’s not sure who’s more betrayed: Blue, because no one told her straight away, or Adam, because his secrets were spilled in the first place.)

**Author's Note:**

> what is gansey's major? what is he studying? what's he gonna do with all these weird classes? who the heck knows? 
> 
> (blue tho... blue i want to double major in some form of science along with fashion oh blue i love her)
> 
> also i wrote this in like three days someone please help me please i just.... aghghghgh


End file.
